NOVEMBER 6 - NOVEMBER 12, 1999
NOVEMBER 12, 1999
It's about time
Good morning. It is 35.2 degrees at 6 A.M.
Erie CBS television station WSEE has been going with a story about a
"McKean County teenager, Timothy Williams, seeking a modified sentence." That
stings because it casts an unfair shadow on McKean County teenagers. Timothy Williams is
from Potter County.
Still, that more or less defines the whole case from beginning to end. From the moment
Police Officer Steve Jerman pulled over the car Williams was driving, nothing went the way
it should have. A man died and now an attorney tells us that 22 to 47 years is too long
for this fine, upstanding, pillar of Potter County to pay for the death of another human
being, let alone our friend, neighbor, and someone an entire community was indebted to for
the years of service he provided.
As a son of a Police Officer, I can tell you, our whole family would have been
devastated had he been killed in the line of duty. How does a devoted wife who has
tolerated the hours, the varied shifts, and the wondering about her husband's safety,
recover from the fact he has been killed. And over what?
What about the children? What about the loss of their father? Even after my father
retired from the police force, he was there to talk to me. He was there to provide
guidance for me. He was there to be my father. What of their loss. Will 22 to 47 years
make up for that?
But even beyond that, what of the two who were in the car with Williams? What of the
girl who cried out to kill Jerman? What of them?
We were told that when the two Pennsylvania State Policemen arrived on the scene, they
never approached the car. Steve Jerman was lying on the cold February pavement next to the
car, yet the two State Policemen took up positions to secure the scene so no one could
escape. Why?
I kind of believe that in the old days, with an officer down, and movement coming from
an automobile that obviously was the source of the condition of the officer down, a rather
routine "Come out with your hands up"just might have been in order.
And, if that was not complied with, maybe, just maybe, the car might have become the
immediate target of a deadly round of gunfire.
It appears that we live in kinder and gentler times these days. It seems protecting the
lives of perpetrators is more important that protecting the integrity of the position of
police officer. Kill a cop, you get killed. Plain and simple and look at what we could
have saved.
Did Timothy Williams really kill Steve Jerman? Evidently someone on the jury didn't
believe it. If they had, Williams would have gotten Murder in the First Degree and been
sentenced to death. That takes us back to the other two in the car and the conduct of the
State Police and the District Attorney.
Why weren't the other two immediately arrested? Why weren't they charged in a similar
manner with Williams? Why were they eventually given immunity rather than forced to stand
trial along with Williams for the murder of Jerman? Why?
Everything I see and hear tells me that if you are along for the ride in the commission
of a felony, any felony, then you are just as guilty. It certainly seems that the two in
the backseat (or were they?) were along for that ride. It would seem to me that they all
fired the death gun that night. And they all were aware that the gun, now reloaded after
the night of frivolity and sex, was present at the time of the stop. So why do they walk
and Williams escapes the Death Penalty?
It seems to me that the State Police didn't do the proper job by not arresting everyone
at the scene. Jerman was dead. What was the hang up?
Then, what was the matter with the District Attorney? Couldn't she make a case to prove
that Jerman was killed without two eye witnesses? Is she that inexperienced that she
didn't believe she could get a conviction without them?
I am sure that if all three were arrested and forced to stand trial, today we would
know the real story about what went on that morning in February. What we heard at trial
was a concoction of two liars saving their own skins with the absolute help of an
incompetent DA and the inexperienced State Police.
And now Judge Alexander's sentence is too harsh. Give me a break. The attorney saved
that kid's life. He can be a free man at age 40. He can go on with his life. What of the
Jerman's. What of Steve Jerman? What were they deprived of?
God forbid that another fine police officer is ever killed in the line of duty
anywhere, let alone here again. But, if it does happen again, and it involves teenage
killers as it did this time; what are we to expect? Will they serve them cookies and milk,
too; while they pamper them and carry them around on soft pillows? I am from the old
school. Kill a cop, you get killed in return. It worked for years and it has to keep on
working.
Comments are welcome at redhedbud@penn.com.
NOVEMBER 11, 1999
Bad vibes
Good morning. It's 34.5 degrees at 6:12 A.M. The weather has really changed
from what it was yesterday at this time. 58 degrees! Oh well. It is November. Thanksgiving
is two weeks away.
Today is my son, Geoffrey's birthday. Happy birthday kiddo. Get to school and
study hard.
It is also Veteran's Day. It used to be Armistice Day to celebrate the end of
World War I; but, with no day set aside to celebrate the end of World War II, and no real
end to Korea and the way Vietnam ended, I guess we have Veteran's Day. And, a veteran is a
veteran. No one cares if they were a cook or a fighter pilot. All were equally important.
Veterans are why we have this nation today.
I got a particularly nasty e-mail yesterday. I will share it with you. It came from
Thomas L Deloe. I don't believe I know Mr. Deloe. But that doesn't mean much. I get mail
from all over. Anyway, here is what he said:
"Hey Beck, I talked to Red Jacket and Cornplanter the other day and they both
said the same thing and I quote, "The reason people don't like Beck isn't because
he's a redhead, it's because he's a loudmouthed, egotistical, lying, back stabbing,
JERK!"
I agree. Now maybe you'll have to get a real job. Good luck LOSER! A REAL
REPUBLICAN"
Now I don't normally take communications like that seriously, but considering he
mentioned that he had run into my two buddies, Cornplanter and Red Jacket, I figured I
should get to the bottom of it. I decided to go down to the Bradford Hotel and see if I
could find them. I wanted to know if they would say such a thing. And, I wanted to find
out if the Deloe guy was one of those Y2K'ers who came to town with Gizmo.
I hadn't been to the hotel in awhile. I walked in a little after eight. And, no
surprise to me, nothing had changed.
Sheffer was on the barstool at the end of the bar. Next to him was Billy Peckham, the
great Irish tenor and the finest chief of police in the history of all of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, except for my father of course. The usual assortment of people were
there, too.
Mattress Margie, Welfare Wes, Toothless Tim, and even Gizmo and his band of Y2K'ers,
all with their plastic welfare cards, good to use in any neighborhood grocery store.
Besides them, seated at a table in the corner was Grant Nichols, the Publisher and Editor
of The Bradford Journal and Miner and the famous author of the Hemlock County
series, David Poyer.
My entry went unnoticed. I had been working all day pounding nails and cutting wood. I
had on a jeans, a flannel shirt and a ball cap. No one recognized me. I walked up to
Sheffer and Peckham and said hello.
"Brother Beck!" Peckham roared taking me into an enormous bear hug. "How
have you been!"
With that the bar came alive realizing who the rough looking stranger really was. It
was me!
A myriad of comments shot back and forth across the room. Everyone had something to
say. Mattress Margie said she voted for me and was sorry I lost. Welfare Wes said he
hadn't voted. He didn't want to ruin his perfect record, but if he had, he wouldn't have
voted for me.
"I never liked you," he said. "I like you even less now that you are
dressing like us."
Toothless Tim told him to shut up. "I voted for you, Bud. I tired to vote twice;
but they caught me trying to say I was my father who died six years ago. He was still on
the voting list."
I walked over and said hello to Grant and David. Both were happy to see me and David
wanted to talk in depth because he saw my story as his next in the Hemlock County series.
"This is what I've been writing about. How a handful of people control the
destinies of the entire county. You were the only chance the people had. In defeating you,
they got their county back."
I stayed silent on that, but I did say: "The People get the government they
deserve."
"Has anyone seen Cornplanter or Red Jacket?" I asked.
"No," I was told over and over.
"The last time I saw them they were with you," Billy Peckham said.
Everyone agreed with Peckham. They hadn't been around since September or so. No one had
seen them.
So I asked if anyone knew this Deloe, guy. No one did.
"How was it he got to Cornplanter and Red Jacket and we haven't seen them?" I
asked. I showed the bar the e-mail he sent me.
"George Duke put this guy up to this message," Toothless Tim said. "It's
all around town that he and his brother, Paul, are indexed in the drug task force
investigation on cocaine in Bradford. He has a little squirrelly P.I. running around
telling people he is from the Attorney General's office and trying to talk about the
letter. The guy's name is Don, or Dan Levis. He's from Erie. Isn't it against the law to
say you are a cop when you aren't? Aren't investigators from the Attorney General's office
cops, or official? Isn't he breaking the law?"
"Sure sounds like it to me," Billy Peckham said.
"Maybe someone should turn this guy in," Toothless Tim said. "He's
working for Jeff and George Duke. If he's breaking the law, then they are too. Aren't
they? Isn't this something like a conspiracy?"
"I don't know, " I said. "It could be. Maybe we should ask
someone."
Anyway, before I left the Bradford Hotel I still was unable to find Cornplanter or Red
Jacket. And this guy, Deloe's e-mail address is tldeloe@juno.com.
Send him a greeting if the mood strikes you.
Have a nice day. Comments are welcome at rdhedbud@penn.com.
NOVEMBER 10, 1999
"How about a little fire, scarecrow?"
Good morning. Yesterday town was a buzz when the article came out. By
noon, The boys at the Bradford Club couldn't believe what I put in print. By supper time,
none other than Dick Kessel and his "employee" were busy running me down over
some food at the Downbeat. My, my.
I stopped into McDonald's on Main Street in Bradford yesterday morning. I passed out
copies of the article. The people I gave them to were older citizens, most of them
retired. The carefully read each line and paragraph. Then to a person, they all agreed
that it was an absolute disgrace that the two owners of Zippo Manufacturing could even
in the remotest way be associated with drugs in McKean County.
"What do you expect?" one retired man said. "Neither one of those two
boys have had to do a lick of work in their entire lives."
Another man chimed in.
"I'm a neighbor of one of them. I still remember when he was shooting up the house
and trying to get his ex-wife. The police came and so did his cousin, who was the
District Attorney at the time. Jeff Duke, the guy you call the Tuna, took Paul's guns. He
was never arrested. That never made it into the papers. They sure kept that
quiet."
One of the men kidded me.
"What about you, Beck," he said. "If you start shooting up your house
with a 9mm, do you think they will keep it out of the news paper? Do you think that you
will ever be allowed to own a gun again? How about jail time? How much do you think you
would do for something like that?"
I laughed. We all knew the answer to that one.
Then one of the younger customers, not sitting with the group, walked over and gave us
his view.
"If you're talking about George, just be fortunate enough to have an accident with
him some Friday or Saturday night when he's been in the bar. He'll buy you a brand new car
just to keep it quiet."
"He should," one of the guys said. "He has two DUI's. The one barely
made it in the paper and we never heard anything about the other. Still he's out there
driving around and drinking every weekend. Just goes to show you what all that money can
get for you."
I chuckled. They were right. And, even though I saw the humorous side to it, I also saw
what was wrong with it, too.
Even with all the conversation and the laughter, one old man sat there shaking his
head.
"Are their names really in that Drug Task Force Investigation?" he asked me.
"You aren't just making it up because of that law suit they filed that cost you the
election?"
"Yes they are," I assured him. "Theirs and a lot of other people well
known around town. Some are friends of mine," I admitted.
"Are you in it?" he asked.
"No," I said. "But The Mountain Laurel Review made it. They had
a copy of Jay Paul Kahle's ad in the report."
"Why?" one man asked.
"Who knows?" I answered him.
Still, the one man was still troubled.
"This is a damn lousy shame," he said. "Old George must really be
disgusted with these two boys. All that money and think of the good they could be doing.
Instead they wind up on the pages of an investigation into cocaine here in Bradford. This
is just a damn lousy shame."
"Yes, it certainly is," I said. Then I asked him about something he said to
me.
"Do you really think that lawsuit cost me the election?" I asked.
"It sure as hell did," he said in a very forceful tone of voice. "My
neighbor was going to vote for you until that ran in The Era that Saturday. You
had them all beat until that came out. People believe what they read in the paper. They
said you and your people wrote that letter. The people who read the paper believed them.
Did you?" he asked.
"Of course I didn't," I said. "If I would have written it, it would have
been in a daily column and my name and picture would have been attached to it. And no one
associated with me did it, either. Everyone knows who wrote the letter. It wasn't me, but
once more, I get it. And now that they have gone this far, that's why the Private
Investigator is here. They have to trump up some case to protect themselves. They have to
come up with something. This is far from over and it isn't going to go away. You can count
on that."
The guys all laughed.
"Hell, Bud," one man said waving the article in the air. "This ain't
nothing new. For thirty years we all knew this. You are the first to ever put it down
anywhere."
"No," I corrected him. "I'm not the first. Agent Michael of the McKean
County Drug Task Force was the first. All I did was report what he did put down."
Heads bobbed up and down in agreement on that one. The bobbed and kept on bobbing. They
all knew it was true.
Comments are welcome at rdhedbud@penn.com.
NOVEMBER 9, 1999
Is it a can of worms; or, is it a kilo of cocaine?
Good day. I haven't commented much on my loss in the recent election. "Bad
form," as Higgens would have said on Magnum P.I., one of my favorite programs in the
eighties. But in light of some recent events, and, considering the way I was defeated,
maybe just a few comments are in order. And perhaps, my old style of name calling might
just be in order for this article.
George B. (for"Bozo the Clown") Duke filed a John Doe Lawsuit against
the person(s) who wrote the infamous letter. In his lawsuit, he and his cousin, Charles
(the Tuna) Jeffrey Duke alleged that: "This letter was written by a small cabal
of unknown, cowardly persons who were attempting to assist in the re-election of Harold T.
"Bud" Beck as McKean County commissioner, in violation of the election laws of
Pennsylvania."
The Dukes go on further to say that: "The above mentioned letter was
sent out to approximately 9,200 April voters of McKean County and resulted in a great deal
of lurid publicity in local newspapers and on radio stations."
Now exactly what are they talking about? Many of us received the letter and
most dismissed it. Considering the great lengths the Dukes went to, you would
believe that what was said was all a pack of lies. But is it? And, what is all of this
about?
It seems that in the letter written by "a small cabal of unknown, cowardly
persons" George Duke was identified as a drug user. Specifically, a cocaine
user, and, according to the letter, he was working in concert with one of the brothers of
Al Pingie, County Commissioner elect, in his cocaine usage.
Ironically, as happenstance would have it, George gave $1,000 to Al Pingie's
campaign. That was published in the newspaper. Also ironically, that was the single
largest campaign contribution this year for county races. But, considering that
George (one of the owners of Zippo Manufacturing) is rumored to be worth $48 million, what
is a thousand dollars here or there to a brother of someone who is your bosom buddy,
especially if he is allegedly your cocaine connection?
Makes sense to me!
Now, if George B. (Bozo the Clown) Duke had Lilly white hands (not to be confused with
hands covered with cocaine by any stretch of the imagination) he would have a logical
gripe. I could understand that. But you know what? It just doesn't seem that way.
Recently, several people were charged with cocaine trafficking. Among those
people were Mike Comilla, Joe Gleason, and Steve Morasco. Reading about their cases, they
were trapped into their actions by Jeff Duke's "confidential informant" (a rat
maybe?) Sean Bacha. At least one of the three, Joe Gleason, tells Bacha "to leave him
alone," that he "is no longer interested in doing cocaine." And so it
began.
They were given over to authorities by Charlie "the Tuna" Jeffery Duke's
personal and private rat, Sean Bacha, the same man that "the Tuna" identified as
one of the greatest "timber thieves" in the history of McKean County. In fact,
"the Tuna" tried him twice for timber theft after convening a Grand Jury
Investigation of timber theft and lost both times.
Charlie "the Tuna" Jeffrey Duke was the District Attorney that began the now
famous drug investigation, ironically, right on the heels of his timber theft fiasco.
Except this time, even a blind tuna finds a rat every now and then.
Larry S. Mroka, a small time, petty cocaine dealer, knew a few Puerto Ricans in
Manhattan with connections to the Colombians who deal cocaine all over this nation.
Sean Bacha got in with Mroka and participated in some small time purchases. From that,
Bacha was able to finger some small time users; specifically, Comilla, Gleason, and
Morasco. But, in fingering them, being users was not enough. Bacha, and his fellow snitch,
Bobby Guzan, had to make it out like they were dealers. Users were not enough. They had to
have dealers.
Arrests were made. The arrested persons got lawyers. The lawyers saw this for what it
was. More of the same. Get the little guy and ignore the big time dealers and importers.
Jay Paul Kahle, attorney for Joe Gleason, told me about the Drug Task Force
Investigation.
"It reads like a who's who of Bradford," he told me. "You wouldn't
believe who is named in it."
I asked to see it. He showed it to me because it was now public record by right of the
fact he got it from the state in discovery. That gave me the right to possess it, too. And
guess who is named?
Now before I tell you, keep in mind the absolute and complete defense against any
derogatory, defamatory, slanderous, or libelous statement is the absolute and total truth.
And with that in mind, and considering who had the absolute million dollar brass balls
to file the John Doe Lawsuit with his hypocrite cousin doing his dirty work, consider
this.
Page Seventeen of Supplemental Report14, BN-70058-95-T, written by Agent James
J. Michael, dated March 12, 1997, under a heading of "Indexing (cont)" gives the
following information:
Duke, George - in; 580 East Main Street, Bradford, PA 16701 814-368-4972
Immediately below George, we have the following person:
Duke, Paul - in, 4da, Duke Center, PA 814-966-3352; Fernwood Drive, Bradford,
PA 16701; 814-362-4866; BNIDC Ref: C5-356492-001.
And on the same page are two more people now well know and implicated by the Drug Task
Force They are:
Gleason, Joseph E. - previously indexed 1gl, lt.
and;
Guzan, Robert Jon - previously indexed 1v, 4d6.
So, you ask, where is the connection to Al Pingie's brother? That's easy enough. He is
listed with his own number in the investigation. It comes up as BN-7005895T. That is early
on in the investigation, back in 1995. George and Paul come in after three years. And,
about the same time, Al Pingie's niece shows up, too, as a friend of Larry Mroka's live in
girl friend..She is specifically interviewed by Agent James J. Michael on April 10, 1997
between the hours of 5:00 and 6:00 PM at her residence.
And this goes on and on. Players Bar, owned by Al Pingie's brothers, is named.
Ironically, in Jeff Duke's and the Drug Task Force investigation, for some reason,
attention stayed away from Players Bar and concentrated on the little guys at the Riddel
House. I wonder why that was? Isn't it ironic that a two time DUI offender, George B.
"Bozo the Clown" Duke drank at and frequented Players Bar? Isn't it ironic that,
even with two DUI's under his belt, he still does? Didn't the late John Reetz have two
DUI's, too?
Now keep in mind that being named in the Drug Task Force Investigation is in no way an
indictment of anyone. However, they thought the naming of people was significant.
Allegedly, the investigation was "indexing" known cocaine users.
So what is my point? Why am I writing this now when it cannot help me to be
re-elected? Why didn't I use this to destroy Al Pingie? Why didn't I use this to help
myself?
The answer is simple. Al Pingie has done nothing that I know of related to drugs. His
family should have nothing to do with it either. I said that. However, the Dukes have
chosen to paint me with the brush of the the anonymous letter writer and did so in order
to defeat me. They accomplished that task. You would think it should be over.
However, they are not satisfied with that. They are attempting to terrorize people who
worked in my campaign. Since last week Don Levis, an Investigator for J.L. Phillips
Investigative Services, 206 W. 11th Street, Erie, PA 16501; 814-454-7401 has been here in
Bradford. Mr. Levis is attempting to scare persons who were supporters of mine. Mr. Levis
is in the employ of George B. "Bozo the Clown" Duke. Using his cousin's money,
"the Tuna" is attempting one more of his little smears on me, just like the
political contribution deal.
This had better stop or I will publish the rest of the Drug Task Force Investigation
(leaving my friends names out of course - Jay said it was a who's who of Bradford) but
exposing further involvement of my enemies. I will be happy to devote this entire web site
to that purpose. Perhaps, I might even open up and additional one, just to deal with the
Drug Task Force investigation and show it up for what it was - a selected attack on a
chosen few, small time users, just ot make it look like we are in the thick of the war on
drugs.
Nothing could be farther from the truth! Today, cocaine flows freely around
Bradford and many of the people named in the investigation are the importers and the
users.
And, if I go to that length, it will show up the Drug Task Force for the small time
"Keystone Kops" they really are. At the same time, you just may draw the same
conclusion others have already done: Charlie "the Tuna" Jeffrey Duke steered the
investigation away from one bar in favor of another, perhaps not to catch his own
relatives in the trap.
By the way, all you have to do to get this is go to the Prothonotary's Office in the
Court House and get the file on any of the three named defendants in the drug cases. There
is more to this. Tune in tomorrow.
Your comments are welcome at rdhedbud@penn.com.
NOVEMBER 8, 1999
Having the last word
Good morning. Today people are waking up finding out that John Reetz was killed in an
automobile accident Saturday evening.
For those of you who are not up on McKean County politics, John was the eighty plus
year old man who tried to run for County Commissioner as an independent. Larry Stratton
took him to court and proved that his petitions were flawed, exposed him as a bumbling old
man, and forced John to run as a write in candidate. John came in fifth, behind my fourth
place finish, with a hundred and twenty some votes.
I am sorry that John is dead. John was an interesting man. He was very opinionated. He
was always right. Being the way that I am, I could understand John. I could also tolerate
him, although at some times, it was more difficult than others. I got the impression that
John’s entry into politics had something to do with my election in 1995.
Ironically, John’s death did coincide with something else. The Bradford Era
ran an unsigned editorial "Four-year wait is over" on Saturday.
Why was it unsigned? Wasn’t anyone proud enough of the work to put their name and
picture on the comment and opinion? Maybe they should have signed it "A Fellow
Taxpayer."
But, even though it was unsigned, it did ring with notes of truth.
After reading it on Saturday evening, only moments before finding out about John, I
asked myself several questions. The most important was: "Did I really blow it?"
To the defeated former commissioners, I would say that they believed that I did. Losing
an election after one term would seem to indicate that I certainly had. It put me in the
same category with Jimmy Carter and George Bush, both one termers who the voters
resoundingly threw out of office. But did I?
Being defeated in a re-election bid for county commissioner in McKean County is
certainly not the end of the world. Kim, my step daughter, who has made us so proud of her
accomplishments, not to mention Sam who was baptized yesterday, says it very well.
"Bud seems happier already."
And when I think about it, I am. Sure there is the sting of defeat. I have always been
goal oriented and liked being on top; but what have I lost?
Being a public figure is not what it is cracked up to be. You are scrutinized up one
side and down the other - or should I say, that I was and other public figures, not quite
as colorful as me, were not. There was my military record that was brought into the
spotlight and then words and claims were attributed to me that never were said. Then they
looked into how promptly I paid my taxes and how can we forget the America On-Line
scandal? When it was all said and done, I was mean spirited and I called people names.
The last time I checked, making mistakes was being human. Certainly, I am human, and
certainly I made mistakes. Oh well.
Would I change anything if I could go back? That is hard to say. It is because at the
time I was making the mistakes, I wasn’t in the frame of mind that I believed what I
was doing was a mistake. And even now, who is to say that what I did was a mistake?
Was exposing a dangerous condition at the high school with asbestos a mistake?
Politically, yes; but, as a journalist who wanted people to know the truth, no. NO! NO!
NO! A THOUSAND TIMES NO. It was proper and correct to expose a cover up and we
haven’t heard the last of it. People have been buying up the video tape presentation
I produced last April. They are putting their copy away in safe deposit boxes just in case
the children who were exposed to the asbestos, heaven forbid, develop symptoms to indicate
what the two brave young men spoke out about, begin to develop. I will never apologize for
that. If losing was the price, so be it.
No, the unsigned editorial was more of the same about me. The four-year wait is over.
It is over for everyone who fought so hard to keep me out and then drive me out once I was
there, and it is over for me, too.
It had a challenging tone to it. It had the tone that I am expected to flail out and
strike back. Was that why it was unsigned? Are they afraid of me? Me?
Are they hoping that in my defeat we can begin a real war? The Mountain Laurel
Review will become a publishing power house and we will go toe to toe with daily
editorials and race to get the news. Not hardly! I am comfortable with what I have.
Believe it or not, I do have a life and responsibilities.
The editorial was a fine piece of writing. It even made me think. It made me remember
an old sales saying. It was about closing a sale. "Who ever talks first, loses,"
was the way it went. In this case I would have to say: "Who ever talks last,
loses." And maybe in the past four years I did learn something. Have a nice day.
Comments are welcome at rdhedbud@penn.com.
NOVEMBER 7, 1999
There was no new article
NOVEMBER 6, 1999
How Do You Want Your Eggs? BY TOM CLARK
"She got her good looks from her father. He was a plastic surgeon." -
Groucho Marx
Is it just me or is scientific advancement in genetic engineering
getting a little too weird? It didn't bother me that Dolly was
successfully cloned from sheep genes. Some boys from over in Potter
County will tell you that you can never have enough sheep around.
I'm undecided on which side of the fence to come down on concerning the cloning of
humans. The general thought of it is way too spooky, yet I can see where the medical field
could benefit from cloning body parts for transplants. As far as whole humans, I don't
think so. My first question would be if the cloned person has an insy or an outsy belly
button.
Scientists have made some fascinating advances in dealing with
human reproduction and infertility. I know all of you, by now, are
wondering why I would be writing about such a topic. An Associated Press article in last
Sunday's Buffalo News got my curiosity up. Let me explain..
Ron Harris, a Malibu, CA, fashion photographer started an
on-line auction house for female reproductive eggs. Not your ordinary, run of the mill
eggs, but those from eight beautiful fashion models. The thinking is that beautiful eggs
will make beautiful kids. The bids start at $15,000 and could go as high as $150,000.
Harris adds a 20% percent fee on top of the bid price for his troubles.
When I read the article, I first thought that this could be some great comedy material
for my own writings. I did an Internet search on "infertility" to see if
I could get some background on the whole egg-swapping business. Whoa...too much
information! I got in a little deeper, pardon the pun, than I wanted to.
I then went straight to the source, Harris' egg auction website (www.ronsangels.com.).
As I waited for the page to load, I
wondered how many hits the site had since the story broke in the
newspapers. My guess is that 99.99% of those who pulled up the website did so out of
curiosity, as I did. What follows is a loose version of Harris' editorial page or, as I
interpreted, his justification of
auctioning off the eggs of babes.
Harris refers to his auction as "Darwin's Natural Selection at its best". To
the highest bidder goes youth and beauty. He quotes a paper, based on a scientific survey,
that was printed in the Scientific American issue of May, 1999, that studied the market
values of mate choices. In other words, the paper puts a hypothetical price tag on what
has always been known as "the meat market".
According to the Scientific American article, the survey sampled personal ads to
determine what each sex wanted to find in a
mate. Of the men surveyed, the three most important qualities in women were fecundity
(youth), beauty and social skills. Next, the study focused on women who matched the top
three qualities that men were looking for. Those women listed young, rich and good-looking
men as their preference. The conclusion to the survey is men's market value, in the eyes
of the "perfect" female, depends mostly on their income and future pair bond
determination, or compatability for reproduction.
Harris goes on to say that the "celebrity culture", or the beautiful
people as we know them, that has been created this century has been more successful in
life than any other civilization in history. None of us
can deny the fact that handsome men or beautiful women seems to get their share of breaks
when it comes to social or economic advancement, and Harris' egg auction plays up to the
fact.
Harris makes a very good point when he says that, through the ages, it has been human
nature to modify everything, including fruits and vegetables, animals and even medicines,
so that they may best serve man. Why not people?
One interesting point he made was that many men would be excited to combine their genes
with a beautiful woman's for reproduction purposes. I wonder if the men are provided a
picture of the babe when it comes to "sample gathering time"?
The more I read about this guy's project, the more it made sense to me. The Associated
Press article mentioned a couple this past Spring that offered $50,000 for eggs donated by
an athletic student at a leading university. This offer certainly makes more sense than
bidding the big bucks for some bubble-headed model's eggs, but, then again, to each his
own.
I gathered from Harris' spiel that this was not so much about what a high bidder's
daughter or son will look like, but more on the chances he or she will have in her
formative years to succeed, all based on looks. Although there is no guarantee of success,
it's a rule of society that the beautiful people get first choice and a couple has more of
a chance of having a beautiful kid using the model's genes. So, what parent, with the
financial means, wouldn't opt for the best possible eggs if infertility is a factor?
Especially if, somewhere along the line, someone peed in their gene pool.
Strong opposition to Harris' auction has been voiced from leading fertility groups
around the country. A spokesman for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine said the
auction is distasteful and unethical. Harris counters by saying, "Every organism is
evolving to its most perfect state. Finding traits that repair your genetic flaws is what
we are all about".
Although Federal law prohibits the sale of body parts, there is no law
barring the marketing of sperm and eggs. Harris states that his model
donors are subjected to rigorous health examinations to ensure the
finest quality eggs. That sounds like something Frank Perdue would have said in a chicken
commercial.
It will be interesting to see how Harris' Eggs From Babes Auction turns out. You can be
sure that, if it is successful, many copy cat services will crop up. Couples will be able
to pick from lawyers (geez, I hope not), doctors, quarterbacks, astronauts and scientists
for the right stuff to make their next child. If anyone happens to notice a market for the
sperm of a weekend columnist, I know one who will gladly donate.
Your comments are welcome at rdhedbud@penn.com.
If you have a comment on this article please click here.
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